Who's ready for a heapin' fistful of more crime horror? This time our "Monday Murdering" comes via the Feb. '53 issue of Wanted Comics #52, and Bill Woolfolk delivers yet another whip-smart crackin' script for Harry Anderson to beautifully load-up with cloaked cult kooks, smokey opium dens, swirling dancers, and dead duck dames; in particular, one truly disturbing hanging aftermath panel. So grab your black bandit masks, it's time to stop a couple'a cold-blooded, crazed killers on the loose! PLUS, another juicy John Buscema cover too!
4 comments:
This is absolutely no-nonsense, hard-nosed detective Grace (and he's drawn that way) busts this complicated case in 7 pages and gets to shoot a guy, too!
BTW did he shove the dancer in front of the bullet? I think the comic is trying to say he shoved her down and went down at the same time to avoid the bullet but it really looks like he shoved her into it! Now THAT is hard nosed!
The art on this is fantastic. This is later in 53 but normally in some of the earlier crime comics the paneling is really tight and packed. This one breaths, less and larger panels, good action, touch he-man, good girl art, all your basics down pat here. Well worth the dime of a kid!
And, yeah, that hanging panel is kind of haunting.
I really love page five of this thing. It's like a page out of a men's catalog. I mean, it would look so right with discrete little alphabet letter on each of those natty suits: a) a worsted twill in chestnut with fashionable lapels and slim single breast; pleated trousers sport a roomy leg. c) same as in a, camel hair.
Starting there, every panel is beautiful through page six. The knotty character work, the gripping detail--this thing is the rare comic that reminds me of Alex Raymond. I love the pulp magnitude of the detective trying to blend into the general crowd at the opium den looking like a hardboiled linebacker, or the silhouette of the blond dancer slogging up the stairs after the show. It all looks so plausible. Speaking of the dancer, I feel like that was actually supposed to be her portrait in that amazing splash page--reference her smoke--but when they realized she didn't even have a name in this story, they went with poor Gloria instead.
I like the technique they used to tell this story on page two (and then returned to later on five), with the narration captions in tabs at the beginning of punchy, two-panel rows. It does the same work a montage might do in a movie.
This is graphic novel art before graphic novel was even an idea.
The art is the real star in this comic, its high quality craftsmanship from an artist who turned out A+ work for this comic.
Prior posts featuring Bill Woolfolk's work showed his versatility in dramatic, horrific and humorous comics. He was more than a mere jack of all trades, he was a master artist who turned out great work.
It figures, I misread the top post, Harry Anderson gets the true credit for the top notch artwork while Woolfolk wrote the script.
I even misread who did what on GCD, art and story.
Either way, I still appreciate the tales posted on Murder Mondays.
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